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It is pretty much standard practice. Citrine is generally Amethyst stones that have been super heat treated. Real citrine is super expensive.

A dealer/jeweler is supposed to disclose any treatments to any stones. Whether it was dyed or heat treated. I wouldn't say it significantly lowers the value of the stone because if it were a naturally beautiful stone (with good color) they probably wouldn't heat treat it. So, actually, it probably increases the value of a less colorful stone by making it a more desireable color. Does that make sense???

For example, naturally colored, untreated stones are going to be worth a lot more than a treated stone of the same color. But a naturally colored stone with a less desireable color isn't going to be worth as much. My mom wants a natural, untreated Ruby ring. She found one. It was $40,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But we were able to find a couple treated ruby rings for under $1,000.

Heat treatment bothers me a lot less than dying. Another treatment that is common is irradiated pearls, which I LOVE! It makes the color permanent and gives such amazing different colors.

Bonjour!Thread Starter

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Heat treated stones like amethyst and citrine and carnelian have basically no resale value. They are not investment grade materials, at any rate. However, it depends upon the rest of the piece. Yurman amethyst / citrine has been heat treated, I'm sure, yet resale on those pieces is very strong.

I am the one that I want!

Thats interesting about citrine being amethysts that are heat treated. I knew that blue topaz's were irradiated to bring out their intensity, but I never knew you could change the color of a stone by irradition. That almost seems false adveristing! It's funny to me that now when people mention the color topaz they mean blue topaz. My birth month is november and the birth stone used to be topaz, which is yellow. Now it's citrine, which for the most part are really irradiated amethyst. I feel so cheated....

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Glily - Yup...my first one in that style. I love how it turned out and am actually wearing it right now! LOL

pejcharat - Well, there IS a real, natural Citrine but it is fairly rare to get one that is that way. And I know what you mean about Topaz...I think of it as a yellow / golden color. LOL But I also love Pink Topaz.

I think that there are standards set that sellers HAVE to tell people how their stones are treated but you know...not everyone follows standards. Grrrr. I try to stick with vendors who I know and trust for that reason.

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Colored stones are very tricky. Unlike diamonds where there is a definite way to classify its color and clarity, it is not the same with colored stones. Colored stones are heated to intensify its color and it is definitely cheaper than natural stones. Unfortunately, it is very hard to discern if the stone is heated or not.